BOULDER — Freshman, freshman, walk-on freshman, tight end.
Welcome, CU coach Karl Dorrell, to your options at quarterback. The Buffs play No. 6 Texas A&M in three weeks. At Empower Field. On national television.
“Itap not super ideal,” CU running backs coach and iconic signal-caller Darian Hagan said with a laugh after Tuesday’s practice.
“I look at it like this: You’re giving freshmen a license to drive a Lamborghini, and these guys have never really driven anything. But you’re giving them the keys to do it, because thatap your kid and you love them.”
Freshman, freshman, walk-on freshman, tight end.
Does this ride come with airbags?
“As long as you’re in that playbook and you have that confidence in knowing what you’re doing,” Buffs tailback Alex Fontenot said, “it DZ’t matter how old you are. It just matters how many plays you make, and (your) execution.”
The Buffs seemed to be in awfully good spirits Tuesday, in spite of the sexiest local quarterback derby north of UCHealth Training Center ending in about the ugliest way possible. During a scrimmage this past Saturday, sophomore JT Shrout, the transfer from Tennessee who was expected to battle freshman Brendon Lewis for the top job, suffered “a significant injury,” as Dorrell described it, to his knee while cutting on a read-option play.
At worst, Shrout was a safety net, a veteran buffer. The Buffs’ No. 2 is now true freshman Drew Carter, who enrolled this past January. After that, itap walk-on freshman and former Durango High standout Jordan Woolverton. Or graduate tight end Matt Lynch, who played quarterback at Legacy High in Broomfield and for three seasons at UCLA before switching positions in the spring of 2019.
Lynch is the Buffs’ emergency quarterback, for now. Like the departed Sam Noyer, he’s a big body (6-foot-5) and a cagey Pac-12 vet. Unlike Noyer, he hasn’t thrown a pass in a regular-season game since November 2017.
Again: A&M. Three weeks.
Freshman, freshman, walk-on freshman, tight end.
Not super ideal.
“The good thing about (Lewis) having the opportunity to do that is, he got his feet wet against Texas in the (Alamo Bowl),” Hagan countered. “To start a game and finish a game the way he did and have success, (that will) be able to propel him on forward to have a really, really good season. Because he’s done it.”
Hagan, who piloted CU to a 30-5-1 record, national championship and three bowls from 1989-91, feels more than a little empathy for Lewis, a cool, level-headed two-way threat from Melissa, Texas.
Both could beat you with their arms or legs. Both made their quarterbacking debuts in a Buffs bowl game — Lewis in the 2020 Alamo, Hagan in the 1988 Freedom. Both got the keys to the Lamborghini before the start of their second seasons.
As a sophomore, Hagan became the first player in Big Eight history to throw for 1,000 yards and run for 1,000 in the same campaign. In whatap become part of CU football lore, the Los Angeles native spent the run-up to 1989 meeting at least three times a day with then-quarterbacks coach Gary Barnett.
“Nothing bothered me (because) I’d seen it all on film,” Hagan said. “Instruction and guidance. Thatap pretty much what a parent does.
“If I’m B-Lew, I’m doing the same thing. I’m going into (quarterbacks) coach (Danny) Langsdorf’s office and I’m being force-fed the offense, like taking a water hose down my mouth. Every piece of advice, everything he talks about, I’m going to take notes.
“When I go out there, I’m just going to remember, now, this is my team. I can’t look over my shoulder. Guys are depending on me.”
Hagan ran for 116 yards and a score and threw for 95 more in his first Folsom Field start, which came against Texas in 1989. Last December, Lewis relieved Noyer against those same Longhorns in San Antonio and put up 73 yards on the ground and 95 through the air.
“(Second) play of the game (in ’89), I went 75 yards and got caught at the 2,” Hagan recalled, laughing again. “Hopefully, (Lewis) does the same thing. And DZ’t get caught.”
